Ernest Miller Hemingway

“ The fiesta was going on outside in the night, but I was too sleepy for it to keep me awake. When I woke it was the sound of the rocket exploding that announced the release of the bulls from the corrals at the edge of town. They would race through the streets and out to the bull-ring. I had been sleeping heavily and I woke feeling I was too late. I put on a coat of Cohn's and went out on the balcony. Down below the narrow street was empty. All the balconies were crowded with people. Suddenly a crowd came down the street. They were all running, packed close together. ”

“ In the back room Brett and Bill were sitting on barrels surrounded by the dancers. Everybody had his arms on everybody else's shoulders, and they were all singing. Mike was sitting at a table with several men in their shirt-sleeves, eating from a bowl of tuna fish, chopped onions and vinegar. They were all drinking wine and mopping up the oil and vinegar with pieces of bread.
"Hello, Jake. Hello!" Mike called. "Come here. I want you to meet my friends. We're all having an hors-d'œuvre." ”

“ Mike said. "Drunk all day and spend all their time beating their poor old mothers."
"He looks that way," Brett said.
"Doesn't he?" I said.
They had hitched the mules to the dead bull and then the whips cracked, the men ran, and the mules, straining forward, their legs pushing, broke into a gallop, and the bull, one horn up, his head on its side, swept a swath smoothly across the sand and out the red gate. ”

“ In the crowd you saw only the heads and shoulders of the dancers going up and down.
In the square a man, bent over, was playing on a reed-pipe, and a crowd of children were following him shouting, and pulling at his clothes. He came out of the square, the children following him, and piped them past the café and down a side street. We saw his blank pockmarked face as he went by, piping, the children close behind him shouting and pulling at him.
"He must be the village idiot," Bill said. "My God! look at that!"
Down the street came dancers. The street was solid with dancers, all men. ”

“ There's nothing but that horse part that will bother you, and they're only in for a few minutes with each bull. Just don't watch when it's bad."
"She'll be all right," Mike said. "I'll look after her."
"I don't think you'll be bored," Bill said.
"I'm going over to the hotel to get the glasses and the wine-skin," I said. "See you back here. Don't get cock-eyed."
"I'll come along," Bill said. Brett smiled at us.
We walked around through the arcade to avoid the heat of the square.
"That Cohn gets me," Bill said. ”

“ Mike thought Brett had best sit high up for her first time, and Cohn wanted to sit with them. Bill and I were going to sit in the barreras, and I gave the extra ticket to a waiter to sell. Bill said something to Cohn about what to do and how to look so he would not mind the horses. Bill had seen one season of bull-fights.
"I'm not worried about how I'll stand it. I'm only afraid I may be bored," Cohn said.
"You think so?"
"Don't look at the horses, after the bull hits them," I said to Brett. ”

“ The banner danced up and down with them as they came down surrounded by the crowd.
"Hurray for Wine! Hurray for the Foreigners!" was painted on the banner.
"Where are the foreigners?" Robert Cohn asked.
"We're the foreigners," Bill said.
All the time rockets were going up. The café tables were all full now. The square was emptying of people and the crowd was filling the cafés.
"Where's Brett and Mike?" Bill asked.
"I'll go and get them," Cohn said.
"Bring them here."
The fiesta was really started. It kept up day and night for seven days. ”

“ By the time the second rocket had burst there were so many people in the arcade, that had been empty a minute before, that the waiter, holding the bottle high up over his head, could hardly get through the crowd to our table. People were coming into the square from all sides, and down the street we heard the pipes and the fifes and the drums coming. ”

“ They were all dancing in time behind their own fifers and drummers. They were a club of some sort, and all wore workmen's blue smocks, and red handkerchiefs around their necks, and carried a great banner on two poles. ”